Hi everyone!!! I know I can come here and get great info...

I'm baking my son's rocket cake today (four layers of WASC, star cutout inside filled with a white WASC mixed with a small amount of buttercream frosting).

Every time I bake a cake, I tend to find that the top of the cake becomes very moist and tacky. To the point that crumbcoating usually results in large chunks of cake pulling away.

I often see this on the sides of my cakes as well.

I'm really hoping to bake cakes that I can physically handle as I stack, torte and carve.

Can anybody please explain to me why this is happening and how I can prevent it? It seems to happen regardless of how long I let the cake cool in it's pan, out of it's pan, on a wire rack, etc.

I've also seen this happen to a cake that came out fine, was wrapped (after completely cooling) in plastic wrap and then frozen.

Any suggestions? I see these cake artists on Food Network...thier cakes are so firm, they can manipulate them any which way they want without breakage. I can NEVER get that with my cakes...lol. Unless I use pound cake and pund cake is good eats for some kinds of baking, but not birthday cake rocket ships.

It means that your cake isnt fully cooked. Bake it a couple of mins more, let it cool, wrap it and pop into the freezer.

when this happens to me, the cake is fully cooked - its on the surface not the inside. think its a bit extra sugar! best to just rub it off before trying to ice!
xx

Yeah, my cakes are fully cooked too. And they usually come out fine, meaning they're not sticky until later. I'm going for a dry top and a nice moist center...lol.

I've experienced the sticky top on WASC cake recipes when the cake was fully cooked. (But I've never experienced sticky sides. Might require additional baking for that problem.)

However, when the cake is levelled, that sticky portion is removed so it's never been a problem. Or if you wrap and freeze your cakes, that portion usually comes off with the plastic wrap when thawed.

HTH

Thanks again folks!!! Of the five 6" layers I baked for my son's rocket, four of them did NOT have sticky sides. They pulled away from the pan nicely and even stayed consistent and firm after refridgerating and handling. The fifth layer happened to be a "leftover" layer that I decided to throw on top to give the rocket a bit more height, even though I was only originally planning on the four layers (had enough leftover batter for a fifth). As the fifth layer was leftover batter...it was actually more batter than the other layers...2 1/2 cups instead of 2. I didn't cook it any longer than the original four and I'm thinking that's why it clung to the cake pan and was very sticky when I removed it from the fridge. I should have cooked it a bit longer, provided for the extra half cup of batter.

Luckily...the layer was PERFECT for the top of the rocket and all of the damage was carved away anyways. And now I know.

I've had this problem with any box cake, WASC, etc. I've never had this problem with pound or angel food. I'm sure there's some kind of scientific reason for it...lol.

Oh...one thing that I did have an issue with is that every single cake layer cratered in the center. I'm not sure why. The first two, I thought it was because I had opened the oven door (thinking it would be done) and moved the cake pans to toothpick test them. I realized right away that they were nowhere near done and I also noticed them immediately sink. But I was much more careful with the other layers and they still sunk.

I baked at 325 with towel strips wrapped around.

Fortunately again, three of the layers were were being carved (on the inside) and filled with cake ball fill so that when the rocket is cut, there will be a white star inside (the cake is blue). I DO need to figure this particular problem out though because next week I'll be making a six-layer rainbow cake.